BLOOM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bloom mean? 

• BLOOM (noun)
  The noun BLOOM has 6 senses:

1. the organic process of bearing flowers

2. reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts

3. the best time of youth

4. a rosy color (especially in the cheeks) taken as a sign of good health

5. the period of greatest prosperity or productivity

6. a powdery deposit on a surface

  Familiarity information: BLOOM used as a noun is common.

• BLOOM (verb)
  The verb BLOOM has 1 sense:

1. produce or yield flowers

  Familiarity information: BLOOM used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLOOM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The organic process of bearing flowers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

bloom; blooming

Context example:

you will stop all bloom if you let the flowers go to seed

Hypernyms ("bloom" is a kind of...):

biological process; organic process (a process occurring in living organisms)

Derivation:

bloom (produce or yield flowers)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

bloom; blossom; flower

Hypernyms ("bloom" is a kind of...):

reproductive structure (the parts of a plant involved in its reproduction)

Meronyms (parts of "bloom"):

stamen (the male reproductive organ of a flower)

pistil (the female ovule-bearing part of a flower composed of ovary and style and stigma)

carpel (a simple pistil or one element of a compound pistil)

ovary (the organ that bears the ovules of a flower)

floral leaf (a modified leaf that is part of a flower)

chlamys; floral envelope; perianth; perigone; perigonium (collective term for the outer parts of a flower consisting of the calyx and corolla and enclosing the stamens and pistils)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bloom"):

floret; floweret (a diminutive flower (especially one that is part of a composite flower))

apetalous flower (flower having no petals)

inflorescence (the flowering part of a plant or arrangement of flowers on a stalk)

ray floret; ray flower (small flower with a flat strap-shaped corolla usually occupying the peripheral rings of a composite flower)

bud (a partially opened flower)

chrysanthemum (the flower of a chrysanthemum plant)

Holonyms ("bloom" is a part of...):

angiosperm; flowering plant (plants having seeds in a closed ovary)

Derivation:

bloom (produce or yield flowers)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The best time of youth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

bloom; bloom of youth; salad days

Hypernyms ("bloom" is a kind of...):

time of life (a period of time during which a person is normally in a particular life state)

Holonyms ("bloom" is a part of...):

youth (the time of life between childhood and maturity)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A rosy color (especially in the cheeks) taken as a sign of good health

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

bloom; blush; flush; rosiness

Hypernyms ("bloom" is a kind of...):

good health; healthiness (the state of being vigorous and free from bodily or mental disease)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The period of greatest prosperity or productivity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

bloom; blossom; efflorescence; flower; flush; heyday; peak; prime

Hypernyms ("bloom" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bloom"):

golden age (a time period when some activity or skill was at its peak)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A powdery deposit on a surface

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

bloom; efflorescence

Hypernyms ("bloom" is a kind of...):

crystallisation; crystallization; crystallizing (the formation of crystals)

• BLOOM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they bloom    ... he / she / it blooms   
Past simple: bloomed   
Past participle: bloomed   
-ing form: blooming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Produce or yield flowers

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

bloom; blossom; flower

Context example:

The cherry tree bloomed

Hypernyms (to "bloom" is one way to...):

develop (grow, progress, unfold, or evolve through a process of evolution, natural growth, differentiation, or a conducive environment)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "bloom"):

burst forth; effloresce (come into or as if into flower)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

bloom (reproductive organ of angiosperm plants especially one having showy or colorful parts)

bloom (the organic process of bearing flowers)

bloomer (a flower that blooms in a particular way)

 Context examples 

Amidst all this socializing, a new romance may bloom.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

In the same way she had seen his wheel and watch go, and after each event she had seen his vigor bloom again.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The drop was at least twenty feet, however, and a bed of crocuses in full bloom lay beneath.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the captain replied that he wished that he and his box—old and with much bloom and blood—were in hell.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

She remembered nothing more until she awoke and found herself in a beautiful meadow, full of sunshine, and with countless flowers blooming in every direction.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The blooms occur when phytoplankton grow rapidly, sometimes producing toxins that can sicken marine mammals and other species.

(Scientists discover genetic basis for how harmful algae blooms become toxic, National Science Foundation)

Unlike red algae, whose blooms can damage the ecosystem, green algae form the basis of the food chain, providing food for crustaceans and larger organisms.

(Scientists report skyrocketing phyotplankton population in aftermath of Kīlauea eruption, Wikinews)

Once deposited there, their iron content could be enough to boost the productivity of marine phytoplankton, feeding new blooms of these microscopic algae and altering ocean ecosystems.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

He was in his working-dress, and looked rugged enough, but manly withal, and a very fit protector for the blooming little creature at his side.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They never asked why she sang about her work, did up her hair three times a day, and got so blooming with her evening exercise.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)